Small Form-factor Pluggable (SFP) modules are used in a wide range of telecommunication and data networking applications to interface between a printed circuit board in a piece of network equipment and a network cable (which may be electrical or fiberoptic). Typically, the SFP receptacle is mounted on the printed circuit board with appropriate electrical connections to the circuit traces on the board, and a connector at the end of the cable plugs into the receptacle. The connector itself commonly contains signal conversion circuitry and is therefore referred to as a “transceiver.”
QSFP (Quad Small Form-factor Pluggable) I/O connectors are commonly used for high-speed data interconnections. The QSFP interconnect system can support transfer at data rates up to 40 Gb/s (4×10) and 56 Gb/s (4×14). QSFP interconnects provide high port density and enable users to make better use of available linear printed circuit board (PCB) space. The QSFP interconnect specifications (such as SFF-8662, for example, for 4×14 Gb/s operation) define a 38-position connector, a receptacle cage, and copper and/or optical cable assemblies, which together increase linear board port signal density well above previous SFP standards.
This system is particularly well suited for transaction-intense networks that are typically deployed in data centers and high-performance computing applications.